Fringed window shade



May 6, 1941.

s. J. JOHNSON 2,241,352

FRINGED WINDOW SHADE Filed Sept. 27, 19:59

:aj amaeDammq I 1N VENTOR.

BY y wzyw W MUTORNEYJ Patented May 6, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIQE Application September 27, 1939, Serial No. 296,840

2 Claims.

Thi invention is directed to window shades and has application to shades made from any of the conventional materials, such as cloth or tion, with a portion of the marginal hem cut away to expose the interior of the hem and to better illustrate the arrangement of the fringe paper. The invention is particularly concerned tufts. with the problem of providing a shade which has Figure 2 is a sectional view along the line 2-2, a decorative fringe at the lower depending Figure 1. margin of the shade. Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a fragment of There is, among a certain class of window the cut-away portion shown in Figure 1. shade purchasers, a more or les continuing de- Figure 4 is a perspective View of the lower mand for shades which have a decorative fringe lo margin of the shade, with a portion of the hem depending from the extended margin of the folded back to better illustrate the sequence of shade proper. Shades of this type enjoy a parthe method steps involved in the manufacture ticular commercial acceptance for certain types of the shade. of residences or other establishments, particu- Referring now to the drawing for a further larly in rural sections of the country. and more detailed description, l, Figure 1, repre- The conventional Way of manufacturing such sents a conventional window shade made from a shade has been to attach a pre-fabricated lo h, pap r, r any other like m r Aroll r fringe strip to the extremity of the shade by around which the shade is adapted to be wound stitching or other like means, after the shade is shown at 2. The lower marginal edge of the has been otherwise completely manufactured. shade has been folded over to form the hem, Fringe strips of this character usually comprise shown generally as 3. The details of this fold a thin strip of cloth or the like to which a fringe, will be described at a subsequent point in this which comprises a plurality of spaced tufts or application. The upper margin of the hem is tassels has been attached in some one of a numstitched along the line of stitching 4 to the shade ber of conventional ways. A fringe strip formed proper to form a pocket for the reception of the in this manner provides an effective decoration shade reenforcing slat, shown at 5. for a shade, but is objectionable from the point Depending from the lower marginal ed e of of view of the shade manufacturer, because the the hem is a plurality of individual U-shaped initial cost of the fringe strip, plus the cost of tufts 6, forming a fringe. These tufts may each the operation of attaching it to the shade, incomprise a group of separable or united strands creases the total cost of the shade to such an exof cord or string, although the exact constructent that the shade becomes a premium item. tion of the tufts is not an element of the in- One of the objects of this invention ha been vention. to provide a fringed window shade in which a The novel features of the structure are posplurality of tufts comprising a fringe is applied sibly best app d o an examination of directly to the margin of the shade during the Figure as s figure best illustrates the secourse of manufacture, by hand or by the aid of quence of steps u i ed n orming the construcsimple machinery which is commercially availtion of the invention and best emphasizes the able, I simple yet effective nature of the improvement. Another object of the invention has been to L0 In Figure 4, the marginal edge 8 of the shade l position and reenforce the fringe tufts in the is shown as first folded upwardly along the line shade margin in such a way that there is little "I in a Si e fold. While still in folded posior no possibility of the tufts pulling out, should tion, the fringe is o ed n e ally with the the shade be grasped by one or several of these shade by the expedient of forming the tuft line tufts. Q through the hem at a point which is below the Another object of the invention has been to upp r al edge 8 of the hem. This step provide a fringed shade in which it is possible is clearly shown at the lefthand side of Figure to dispense with the fringe supporting strip con- 4. The formation of this tuft line can be acventional in the prior art, and associate the complished by hand, but the preferred method of fringe tufts directly with the fabric of the shade accomplishing it is y t e use Of a machine margin.

Other and further objects will be apparent from a description of the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective View of a shade constructed in accordance with the present inven- 4 known as a chenille type sewing machine. This machine is conventionally used in the manufacture of chenille bed spreads and operates to thread a length of tufting cord in and out through the hem of the shade and the shade proper, simultaneously severing the cord at spaced points on one side only (in this case, the reverse side) of the fold. The result is a plurality of individual U-shaped tufts of equal length and regularly spaced which form a fringe when the severed ends are depended from the marginal edge of the shade. The appearance of the tufts after this machine operation i best hown in Figure 3.

After the tufts have been inserted as just described, the hem is then folded upwardly a second time along the tuft line 9, and subsequently stitched along the line 4 to the shade proper.

The details of the resulting structure are clearly shown in section in Figure 2. The first hem fold portion 1, which has a terminal edge 8 rearwardly of the tuft line, acts as a reenforcing elementfor the fringe and strengthens the hem proper, which also performs the additional function of receiving the shade reenforcing slat 5. This slat will normally rest on the upper or doubled portion of the individual tufts, as shown in Figure 3, and tends to some extent to maintain the tufts in position. The tufts, having been threaded through two thicknesses of the shade material, are also effectively maintained in position by frictional contact against the sides of the apertures formed in the material, by the sewing operation. If desired, they can be further reenforced by pasting an adhesive strip (not shown) along the tuft line 8, Figure 4. However, if the shade material is of conventional thickness and strength, further reenforcement should not be necessary.

, The simplicity of the construction will be evident from the fact that the complete fringe is,

in effect, formed by the single operation of forming the tuft line 9 in the manner just described, but the fringe which is formed is even more attractive in appearance than would be the case if the conventional fringe strip were simply attached to the shade, as such a strip gives the appearance of having been simply tacked. on; whereas the fringe of the invention appears as an integral element of the shade.

In the description of the shade as just set forth, the various steps of the method have also been recited. These may be summarized as the primary fold, the insertion of the tufts, the second fold along the tuft line, and the stitching of the hem. A feature of the shade is the formation of the tuft line through a double thick ness of shade material, so that when the hem is folded along this line, the tufts will be effectively reenforced. This has been found to be of importance particularly in the case of paper shades. In the case of cloth shades, it is not always necessary to reenforce the tuft line, and the method can be practiced by simply forming the tuft line, folding the extended margin upwardly along the tuft line to form a hem, and then securing the hem to the body of the shade by stitching or some other suitable way.

Having fully described my invention, I desire to be limited only by the ensuing claims:

1. In a window shade having a marginal hem, a decorative fringe formed on the depending margin of said hem, said fringe comprising a series of individual sections of decorative fibre, the ends of each section being inserted through spaced apertures in the hem margin and extending downwardly therefrom, said ends being spaced equidistant from one another and being of relatively equal length.

2. In a window shade, a marginal hem for receiving a reinforcing slat, said hem being formed from at least two thicknesses of shade material, and a decorative fringe depending from said hem, said decorative fringe being formed from a plurality of individual U-shaped tufts threaded through and supported by the double thickness of the hem.

SAMUEL J. JOHNSON. 

